#Review By Lou of Taylor Swift Is Life By Kathleen Perricone @kperricone #TaylorSwift #Swifties #Music #ErasTour #ModernIcons

Taylor Swift Is Life –

A Superfan’s Guide to All Things We Love about Taylor Swift

By Kathleen Perricone

This is one for all you “Swifties” out there. As she continues with her Eras tour, whether you have been able to get one of the most sought after tickets or not, let’s also build up the excitement for Taylor Swift Is Life. Part of The Modern Icon’s series, it’s a comprehensive book for all Taylor Swift fans out in July. I am fortunate to have an advance copy, thanks to Quarto Publishing Group. Check out my review, including a buy link (please note I am not affiliated to the buy link) and then blurb below.

Review

This is a must-have for Taylor Swift fans. This one is especially great for the tweens and teens, but there’s enough to also interest adults.
What’s your favourite Taylor Swift Song? Want to know more about Taylor Swift and more about those hidden “Easter eggs”? This is the book for you!
It becomes apparent all is covered in 3 parts in Taylor Swift Is Life:
“The Making of a Mastermind” covers her very early years, how she came to music and started in Country Music before switching to Pop and how this switch in styles helped her rise and rise in fame.
“Taylor-Made Music” treats fans to the hidden messages behind her songs. It feels an in-depth insight into the songs everyone hears all the time and includes her latest album – “The Tortured Poet Society.” The in-depth of study is fascinating in what it reveals and how it’s presented is engaging.
“Swiftology” is like an A-Z of Taylor Swift, including a horoscope so you can find out which song links to your star-sign, which is a bit of fun.

Over-all the book is well-presented and illustrated. It’s the time for Swifties to get the songs on and get an understanding of Taylor Swift like never before!
So to get past your “Cruel Summer” and discover more of a “Love Story” you can pre-order here: Amazon

Blurb

Celebrate your best Swiftie life with this gorgeously illustrated, all-encompassing fan book on everything there is to know and love about the modern icon that is Taylor Swift.

From her first vocal lessons at age nine, to learning the guitar at twelve, to becoming the most downloaded women on Spotify, and then breaking the internet with her Eras Tour, Taylor Swift has rocked the music scene and captured the hearts of fans across the globe. Gathering her incredible life story, music, and fan culture all in one place, Taylor Swift Is Life captures her epic achievements, brilliant lyrics, and her incredible ability to connect with her fans like no other musician before her.

This treasure trove of essential Swiftie knowledge includes:

A full biography capturing her early inspiration and first performances through her through her sensational 2023-2024 Eras Tour
A full discography of Taylor’s music, including the significance of each album personally and professionally, the meaning behind every Track 5, and all the hidden Easter eggs and symbolism behind the songs.
Swiftology, or Taylor A to Z, covering significant words, imagery, and people in Taylor’s life that every Swiftie should know, from arm poetry to maple lattes, and polaroids to Zoë Kravitz
Taylorscopes for every sign, to find out how your stars align with Swift’s music, and learn which Taylor song represents you

Both a tribute to our beloved Tay and a chic showpiece for any well-appointed bookshelf, Taylor Swift Is Life is a must-have title for every true Swiftie.

#Review By Lou of All You Need Is Love By Peter Brown and Steven Gaines @Octopus_Books @RandomTTours #AllYouNeedIsLove #TheEndOfTheBeatles #PeterBrown #StevenGaines #TheBeatles #Biography #Music #NonFiction

All You Need Is Love
By Peter Brown and Steven Gaines

A Must of All Beatles Fans! All You Need Is Love is a fascinating look into The Beatles as told by their inner circle and The Beatles that uncovers lots of previously unpublished interviews. It’s quite astonishing and an incredibly interesting read as it is interviews and not an oral history. Find out more in the blurb and my thoughts below. Then discover more about the authors of All You Need Is Love. Their own bios have a tale or two to tell about how intimate they were with The Beatles.

Blurb

All You Need is Love is a ground-breaking oral history of the Beatles and how it all came to an end.
Based on never-before-published or heard interviews with Paul McCartney,
Yoko Ono, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, and their families, friends, and business
associates, this is a landmark book, containing stunning new revelations, about the
biggest band the world has ever seen.
In 1980-1981 former COO of Apple Corp, Peter Brown and author Steven Gaines
interviewed everyone in the Beatles’ inner circle and included a small portion of the
transcripts in their international bestselling book The Love You Make, which spent four months on the New York Times bestseller list. But left in their archives was a treasure trove of unique and candid interviews that they chose not to publish, until now.
A powerful work assembled through honest, intimate, sometimes contradictory and always fascinating testimony, All You Need is Love is a one-of-a-kind insight into the final days, weeks, months and years of the Beatles phenomenon.

Review

I wasn’t born when The Beatles were at the height of their fame, nor was I when they split, but everyone knows who The Beatles are/were, even at primary school a major song to learn was Yellow Submarine and everyone knows the Christmas songs too, even today in the decade of the mid-2020’s. Two are dead and yet their long lasting reach into public consciousness goes on with popstars coming after them still influenced by their music and even into film culture where All You Need Is Love features in a major scene in that great film, Love Actually.

As for the book, All You Need Is Love has sparkling never published before interviews that are bound to set tongues wagging as conversations start.
I know, there’s been a few of these dotted around, but these interviews are highly significant. There are revelations about the band and in a midst of ever speculation about how it all ended, this feels like it gets to the roots of everything. It’s particularly special because it isn’t second hand information.
Some of the book is, however, bittersweet as there are interviews by John Lennon not long before he was murdered.

Once started, it becomes intensely fascinating in a way I hadn’t quite expected. The presentation of the interviews feel so free-flow and so candid, in a way that you feel like you’re in rooms with everyone being interviewed, much like youre sitting in an audience.

The book feels so natural, like nothing is stilted nor concealed, even contradictory statements. A picture emerges of the building of tensions and you get a feel of what that time of The Beatles coming to an end may have been like for all concerned.

It’s great that the interviews see the light of day from previously being hidden in the depths of archives. It got me thinking that in a way, what with both fans who perhaps saw The Beatles and the remaining Beatles and Yoko Ono getting naturally older, it feels fitting that this book is published. It got me wondering if this would be the last one with previously hidden facts. I guess we will have to wait and see. For now, this is quite some emergence of interviews with The Beatles and people who they were associated with like family, colleagues alike, some who are now dead, but their names also live on in the music industry and beyond. This makes it special and quite unique.

Whether a Beatles fan or a music fan in general, this is a totally fascinating read and one that may well get you thinking of the band all over again and in a new light.

About the Authors

STEVEN GAINES is the New York Times bestselling author of Philistines at the Hedgerow: Passion and Property in the Hamptons and The Love You Make: An Insiders Story of the Beatles (with Peter Brown).
His journalism has appeared in Vanity Fair, the New York Times, and New York magazine, where he was a contributing editor for 12 years.
Mr. Gaines is the co-founder and a past vice-chairman of the Hamptons International Film Festival. He has lived in Wainscott, a small hamlet on the East End of Long Island, for 40 years.

PETER BROWN is the former COO of Apple Corp, the Beatles’ financial empire. He’s been a Beatles intimate since their earliest days in Liverpool.
Their passports were locked in his desk drawer. He was best man at John and Yoko’s wedding, he introduced Paul to Linda Eastman, and perhaps the most charming of his credentials is that he’s the only real person ever mentioned in a Beatles song, “Peter Brown called to say, you can make it okay, you can marry in Gibraltar near Spain,” from the “Ballad of John and Yoko.”
Mr. Brown is now chairman of the international public relations firm of Brown Lloyd James LTD.

Celebrating 5 years of Bookmarks and Stages Blog By Lou

#CrimeFiction #Romcom #HistoricalFiction #NonFiction #Biographies #Autobiographies #Theatre #Musicals #Plays

5 years of Bookmarks and Stages Blog

It is hard to believe that 5 years later and me and my blog are still here. It really is, and what I am writing here comes from the heart and every word is meant.
See some books, find out a bit more about behind the scenes, certain people who deserve a shout out, something exciting to come for those who follow and read my blog as you travel to through this blog post.

It is so wonderful that you read my reviews, whether it is reading the book, the theatre. the festival reviews or the Q&As or all of them,
I thank you all very much.

Watch Out For Friday 29th September. I will do a giveaway.

I wanted to write a different sort of blog post. It strikes me how people aren’t always thanked, recognised for what they actually do and also 5 years is quite something isn’t it? A bit of a milestone I, at times wasn’t sure if I’d reach it or not and with followers intact and I am excited to say this is still growing. I felt, since my blog has reached the heady heights of 5 years old, I should give you a bit more than just a simple thanks. To me, you’re worth more than that and 5 years later to see that people are still commenting, still reading, still interacting with my blog and social media and still joining my blog excites me. It’s a journey like none other. I even still remember initial conversations with certain people, whether privately or on publicly on social media.
I am a little nervous a I write this post, I’ll admit, because I don’t often write like this, but here goes nothing and I hope you remain following and reading my blog.
I am self-taught, so not all may be deemed “conventional” and perhaps this blog post is or perhaps it isn’t, I do not know, but it is what’s in my heart to the tips of my fingers to write because, like everything in life, I don’t take people for granted because I know pain, suffering, love, greatness. I also know how incredibly lucky I am, even all these years on in what and who has come my way.

A blog only exists if it is both created/written and read.

Firstly, I am grateful to everyone who’s path I’ve crossed in either the physical or virtual world, some I now know a bit more personally and others I do not (yet).
I am acutely aware that I write and create alone, this is not a solo process to keep a blog going. Networking goes on, however formal or informal, support occurs in many forms, including reading and sharing. I have written about some of this and certain people below.

I am also grateful for the interactions, the sharing of my work, the conversations.
I write alone, sometimes with music on, sometimes in pure silence, amongst my paid job, volunteering, family life and studying. Blogging is a far cry from doing this. Where I live, it’s a typical small place. so as much as I live and open up my world, blogging has come with unexpected and beyond my wildest dreams type of opportunities that have opened it even more, meaning I’ve seen things, met people, been quoted in books and across social media platforms you know, the stuff I always thought would be out of reach and just happened to other people, but has miraculously to me and is sincerely beyond my wildest dreams.

For you, the blog readers and followers of my work, wherever that may be, I will do something special 29th of Sept for you to enter.
But first, how did it all start? Who are some of the people who I feel the need to give thanks to beyond readers of my blog? Let’s get cracking and find out as you travel further.

Behind the Scenes of the Bookmarks and Stages Blog

I came up with the name Bookmarks and Stages because I knew I didn’t want it to be only 1 thing. I have a love of books, theatre, talks and events that happen on a stage. So, Bookmarks is the bookish part. We often like a bookmark to keep our pages, don’t we? The bookmark I use as my logo was what I cross-stitched up for my mum pre-blog and I just borrowed it back. Stages is the arts part. Often events are performed on a stage. I also didn’t want it to be a focussed blog on one genre or another. There’s plenty about that do and are great, but I decided that wasn’t really for me.

My blog is growing and I have recently been commissioned to write reviews once a month for a new magazine – The Writers’ Narrative. It is free on ISSUU and £1.99 on Amazon, these reviews do not appear first on my blog and have not appeared on my blog before in-accordance to the rules. I am given a theme and choose a book in-accordance to this. The Writers’ Narrative (This link will open in a new tab, so you can easily return here).

Starting “Quietly” (or not as the case may be)

Well, what can I say. I tend to do things, perhaps a bit unconventionally for some. I thought I was starting quietly. I wrote a really small introduction blog post. I had tickets for the days and week after that initial post for Bloody Scotland and Morecambe and Vice. Both crime book festivals, the first in Scotland and the other in England. I wasn’t there to blog. I was there because there were people I wanted to see and an actor and author I had arranged to meet prior to even having a blog. I walked the torchlight parade at Bloody Scotland and took a seat the next day at an event, then thought I would make myself useful and write it up, similarly at Morecambe and Vice and introduced myself to a bunch of authors and got some good advice. Miraculously people spoke. let me take photos for my blog and some even followed. I had nothing to lose. I wasn’t there in any capacity. the only thing I had to lose was if I came across terribly to an actor and author I had arranged to meet. Turned out absolutely fine in the end.
A friend later informed me this is apparently not a quiet way to start anything, let alone a blog, apparently a small book review would be a quiet way to begin. This had occurred to me, but I saw an opportunity to maybe do something decent for others whilst in their presence and it seemed a good starting point to me.

Special Thanks (and bookish pics)

There are some people who deserve a bit of a shout out here because some people do things that are unseen and unknown and generally it is above and beyond. Some of these people have been around since the start, some encouraged me to start a blog in the first place and others have given me or opened up wonderful opportunities and firsts of things for me.
These people (in no particular order) are Wendy H. Jones, Kelly Lacey, Robert Daws, Linda Hill, Anne Cater, Sue Moorcroft, Matson Taylor, Rebecca Collins, Adrian Hobart, Joanne Baird, Isabelle Kenyon, Lin Anderson and Bob McDevitt, Nula Suchet, Joanne Harris,Fern Britton and Elizabeth Dawson and Sara Jade Virtue, Ellie Hudson, Alison Barrow.
A few people are also mentioned at the bottom who share my work around a fair bit.

Crime, non-fiction, children’s author and podcaster Wendy H. Jones, incidentally also the editor of The Writer’s Narrative. Long before she commissioned me for this, she, along with top Scottish blogger and blog tour organiser encouraged me to start a blog. I had considered one years prior to this on holiday destinations and decided against it on grounds it could have been short-lived and then I realised, shortly after this thought, I wasn’t holidaying quite so much. I met Wendy H. Jones at a library author event and then for coffee. I thought it was an innocent coffee after replying to say I could be in Edinburgh.
Kelly Lacey joined us (I had no idea who she was at the time and now she is a good friend). I was asked about reviewing, blogging and social media. This niggled within my brain and wouldn’t let go, so I went off to research how to write a blog, taught myself and then introduced myself to some people.
Anne Cater from Random Blog Tours is someone I introduced myself to after writing some blog posts. She is a successful blog tour organiser and thankfully she liked my blog posts enough added me to her invite list.
Linda Hill was also a person I introduced myself early on. It seemed a good idea and I wasn’t wrong. She supports me, sharing every post and answered some queries I had very early on and is a bit of a “cheerleader” and writes her own fantastic blog and contributes to a magazine (different from the one I am now contributing to).

It’s a long story, but one thing led to another and pre-blog, I found myself saying to actor and author Hugh Fraser that I’d go down to Morecambe, since I couldn’t go up to Aberdeen. So, in a way, he is instrumental in my first taste of Morecambe and the crime book festival, I ended up trying out writing up a festival. Following this, I officially did this for the Morecambe and Vice festival.

Robert Daws is an actor of stage and screen and crime author who has clearly opened opportunities for me and has instilled confidence in me and my writing and that for me is huge and will always mean a lot and is intuitively kind in hard times.
He is published by Hobeck Books, run by Rebecca Collins and Adrian Hobart. They give me opportunities to review and do things for them in their background and this is thanks to all 3 of these people. Not that I rate everything that shiny 5 stars, it’s always honest. They also shared an entire blog post they did not know I was writing onto their website when they turned 1, some years back now.

Joanne Harris also shown kindness through a hard time and also gave me opportunity to review one of her books and now I am on a publisher’s list to review her books.

Lin Anderson and Bob McDevitt run Bloody Scotland. Lin Anderson supports my blog and I happened to have had a chance meet with Bob McDevitt, nowhere near Stirling, where Bloody Scotland, but many miles away in Morecambe and reckoned I should email a certain person to review for them. Lockdown happened and I had my fingers and toes crossed afterwards that the contact person was still involved and a press pass was given. I’ve written up many panels and the rest is history.

Sue Moorcroft gave me a chance to review one of her books and was the first without it being attached to a blog tour. I hadn’t approached an author before about reviewing their book and thankfully she agreed. It wasn’t this book, but this one holds many other memories.

Isabelle Kenyon gives me opportunities to review via some small presses,
such as Fly On The Wall.

Nula Suchet gave me first opportunity to review her autobiography and has supported me and my blog.

Adam Croft for automatically sending me an email asking if I’m available to review.

Elizabeth Dawson from Harper Collins got in touch during lockdown asking if I wanted to be part of a small group on Zoom to interview Fern Britton. I hadn’t been part of any type of Q&A before as far as blogs were concerned, only a bit in library work.
I had not long lost my gran, but I went for it. I had used Zoom once before because like many other people, I held virtual dinner parties, starting on social media and then the chat went to Zoom, so when the chance of an interview, something I had never done and on new technology, I had everything crossed, took a deep breath and joined the chat, also hoping I would keep it all together due to what happened not many days before. Luckily I did and Fern Britton has supported my blog and some social media since that Q&A.

I had never asked anyone before to interview. I wasn’t sure whether I could, should or what the response would be. Matson Taylor agreed to a Q&A style interview. This was done via email on the account we really wanted to meet and then had so much fun talking about this and that, the 40 mins of Zoom sped past, twice.

Sara Jade Virtue of Team Books and the City (Simon & Schuster) has got me on her list and gives me great opportunities to review books.

Alison Barrow for giving me a chance reviewing some pretty huge books she published.

Ellie Hudson allows me from time to time to review Penguin Viking books and allowed me to review The Thursday Murder Club (2nd book) and I won the first when there was a library competition on, so I also have Richard Osman himself to thank, who also sent my mum a card one Christmas, when he ran another comp.

Val Penny for being the first person to suggest I posted my reviews on their FB page.

Flick Morris PR is opening some review opportunities and British Comedy Guide listed my blog for so many Edinburgh Fringe shows and Gyles Brandreth, Jon Culshaw, Shoot From the Hip quite certainly helped in getting my blog noticed further by their sharing.

Joanne Baird, Melanie Hill, Karen Louise Hollis, Karen Kingston, Janet Emson, Karen at Orenda Books, Andrea Tromans, Liz Fenwick, Lynne Walker, Kevin Ansbro, Mason Bushell, R.C Brigstock, Alison Waterfield, Helen Weir, William Shaw, Clive Mantle, Dr. Chris Merritt, D.E. McCluskey, Kevin Ansbro, Welbeck Books, M.W. Arnold, Sarah Harwood, Catherine Russell, Camilla Elworthy, Sue Vickers-Thompson, William Humble who cheerlead, give opportunities and share my work around and a couple who invite me onto blog tours, introduce me to some folk all of which I am grateful as it all helps.
There are also many other people who follow me for which I am grateful for and appreciative of too.

Moving Ever Forwards

I hope first and foremost to still have opportunities, a readership and followers.

I love writing reviews. I couldn’t say how many hours I put into this and how many times I’ve worked at some odd times of day to fit it in, but nonetheless I love doing it. I love the knowledge that someone is finding something useful out of it.
I’ve discovered I like doing Q&As on my blog and would like to do more. I’ve done some, since my first one, where I’ve written out the questions and the recipient has posted me the answers. ROI PR has enabled some of this and a couple of actors who have approached me with opportunities too, so far. On top of this, I have a bit of a wish list. I will also continue writing reviews of books, theatre and festivals. Theatre and festivals are other areas I would like, when and where possible, to increase my reviews of too. I will also still be writing reviews for The Writers’ Narrative Magazine.

If I’ve missed anyone out, it isn’t intentional and just know I care not just of the work produced but the people producing it and the readers reading my blog. Imagine how long this blog post would be if I listed everyone I ever reviewed for and everyone who has ever shared, read my posts. It might break the internet! I am grateful to all those who I have ever had the opportunity to review for, continue reviewing for and to all those I’ve met in-person and/or online.
I am excited and hopeful to see what the next 5 years bring and hopefully you’ll all join me on this journey too.

Thank You!!!

I now leave you with just a few images of books, podcasts and stage that I’ve had the pleasure of reviewing over the past 5 years, in no particular order. There have been many more, but imagine how huge the blog post would be then. I might even break it.

In The Absence of Miracles

Hands Up

Closer To You

Eileen – The Making of George Orwell

Paper Sparrows

They Magic Flag Mystery

Journeys in the Wild

The Boy Who Dreamed of Dragons

Trueman & Riley with Robert Daws and Duncan Preston

A Jewel in the Sands of Time

Shakespearean

A Year of Simple Living

The Life We Almost Had cover with flowers

The Dragon With The Blazing Bottom cover

cover SOLO TRANSFORMATION ON STAGE by Ronald Rand (1)

image_604acc58-ddf9-41c3-820f-7b580af96bc0

Normal Rules Don’t Apply by Kate Atkinson

#HappyNewYear #2023. Here are a number of #Fiction and #NonFiction Books in many genres I highly #Recommend from #2022 #BookRecommendations #BookReviews #BookWrap

I have reviewed many books in 2022 and what a privilege it has been too. Here are some that I highly recommend out of the many books I have reviewed in 2022. I also have included links to my full no spoiler reviews where you’ll also find the blurbs. The mix of crime fiction, contemporary fiction, historical fiction, non-fiction, memoirs are in no particular order. Please also feel free to explore my blog for other great book reviews, author interviews and talks and theatre reviews.

The Little Shop of Hidden Treasures By Holly Hepburn – An antique shop, antiques, a mysterious puzzle box, a trip to Egypt, a mention of the Canarvon Family (think the real Downton Abbey), all wrapped up in a wonderful book full of splendid characters.
Holly Hepburn has a new book coming this year that I will also be reviewing.

Check out the blurb and my review in the link: The Little Shop of Hidden Treasures

Suicide Thursday By Will Carver explores this and the darker corners of society. It’s a compulsive read with intriguing characters – Mike, Jackie and Eli. Will Eli leave a hated job and get past writing chapter 1 of a novel? What is written in texts? Find out the answers to these and more in Suicide Thursday.

Link to blurb and review –Suicide Thursday

All About Evie By Matson Taylor is a humorous second book to the much talked about The Miseducation of Evie Epworth that was a Radio 2 book club pick. There’s much humour mixed with poignancy and sadness. Find out what happens at a sound check at Broadcasting House, her friend, Caroline and life’s mishaps and incidents. It’s highly engaging. Find the blurb and review in the link: All About Evie

Yes, I Killed Her By Harry Fisher s full of chilling suspense. The question isn’t who, but it is how. How did a murderer commit such a calculated crime. Is it as perfect as he thinks? Here is a link to the blurb and full review. Remember, I’m not going to disclose the answers to those questions. That’s for you to discover yourselves: Yes, I Killed Her

Verity Vanishes By A.B. Morgan is book 3 of The Quirk Files. The books can be read as part of the series or as standalone as the cases each complete by the end of the book. The Quirks are quirky private investigators.

There are secrets to uncover, including who was Verity, why has she vanished and why is a tv station so interested in this particular case? It’s intriguing with wit. See blurb and review in the link –Verity Vanishes

Touching, haunting and a darn good unputdownable read. It takes place between Glasgow and H.M. Polmont Prison in Central Scotland. It’s gripping getting to know about what revelations unfold in Ginger and Wendy’s personalities and what happens to them. It’s a book of obsession and friendship and more in this contemporary fictional book… Find out more in the link to the blurb and my full review: Ginger And Me

The Homes By J.B. Mylet is set in an orphanage village in Scotland. Follow the lives of Lesley, Jonesy and Eadie, all from their points of views. How safe is The Homes? Murder strikes and everything changes in this fast-paced, immersive page-turner. It’s fiction based on a true story. Find out more in the link: The Homes

Remember Me by Charity Norman is gripping and addictive as the layers build up to discover what has happened to Leah, who has disappeared.

The book also follows Felix, who has Alzheimer’s. It’s authentically and sensitively written. Discover the blurb and the rest of my thoughts in the link: Remember Me

Should I Tell You By Jill Mansell is enthralling in both setting and the relationships between all the characters. Meet Lachlan, a chef in high demand and Peggy, a formidable, yet fun woman who puts up a credible argument as to why he should follow her to Cornwall to cook his amazing food. Also meet Amber, Lachlan, Rafaelle and Vee as you step into idyllic scenery. Is all well though? What would you make of the mysterious letter? Find out more in my link about this beautiful, compelling book that perfectly captures the lives of its characters, who are concealing truths. Should I Tell You

White Christmas on Winter Street has all the festive feel-good vibes you can want. Unearth the treasures in Corner House in Middledip. It’s a rather moving book as Heather returns to discover new friends and old. Find out more in the link: White Christmas on Winter Street

The Little Wartime Library By Kate Thompson is about a courageous librarian who took Bethnal Green Library underground during World War 2. It is fascinating and is fiction based on fact. Lots of research was done, including asking librarians, including me, many questions that then formed the basis of the central character. The Little Wartime Library

The Locked Away Life by Drew Davies is about 2 people who are seemingly poles apart. 1 is becoming practically a recluse and increasingly elderly, the other, much younger in need of a job, which is how they meet. Little do they know they need each other more than they thought they would. It’s a heartwarming story. Find out more in the link: The Locked AwayLife

Love Untold by Ruth Jones is uplifting, emotional and endearing, It crosses the generations from a teenager right up to a 90 year old. It’s well observed in all the complexities of life and interactions.
Discover more such as the blurb and my review in the link. Love Untold

The Cliff House by Chris Brookmyre puts readers on an island. There’s a hen party set on a Scottish island. In some ways it’s a bit like And Then There We’re None by Agatha Christie, but there are also many differences.

There are frictions amongst the guests and things take a sinister turn. It’s a well-observed book in the way relationships are between the characters and what happens when people are on a remote island. Everyone has a secret and no one is safe. Find out more in the blurb and the rest of my thoughts in the review: The Cliff House

Cat Lady By Dawn O’Porter is very humorous but also very poignant and thought provoking. Within the book, wrapped in the cuteness of a cat, there is a great human story too and both together makes this quite different and compelling. There are 5 parts to Cat Lady – Mother, Career Woman, Animal, Wife, Cat Lady. Follow Mia and Tristan through the ups and downs of life. Mia is especially more than you would perhaps assume she is… Here is the link to the blurb and full review: Cat Lady

Thrown is a debut novel by Sara Cox. It’s heartwarming and uplifting at a pottery class. It’s about community pulling together and friendships forming. There are elements that may well tug at your heartstrings. Here is the link to the blurb and review: Thrown

The Cruise by Catherine Cooper takes place on the most luxurious cruise-liner. The type that would be a holiday of a lifetime. Something mysterious happens and it is compelling to travel around to try to fit together all the pieces to discover how they all fit together and some truths. Here is the link to the blurb and full review. The Cruise

Keeping A Christmas Promise By Jo Thomas is about 4 friends who have known each other for 25 years. Tragedy happens to one of them, meaning it is up to 3 of them to keep their bucketlist promise- to see the northern lights at Christmas. With themes of friendship, mortality and strength to carry on in the face of adversity and community, it’s an entertaining, heartwarming book. Here is the link to the blurb and full review. Keeping A Christmas Promise

The Echoes of Love By Jenny Ashcroft transports readers to the 1930’s to the 1940’s and then to 1970’s. It takes readers into the depths of love and war and how it reverberates years later. The book is set between Portsmouth in the UK and Crete. It is a story of war and love. A story unfolding at the BBC Broadcasting House. It is fascinating, poignant and beautifully written. Here is the link to my original review and the blurb. The Echoes of Love

Cooking the Book by various authors published by Hobeck Books also raised money for the Trussell Trust. It’s various short stories, each taking on a different sub-genres of crime fiction. Each also has a recipe you can create by each author. Here is the link to all the details Cooking The Books

The Language of Food is fiction based on fact. It takes reader into the life of a little known woman, by many, called Eliza Acton. She changed the course of cookery forever and when today’s cooks come across her, they are inspired by her story and style and have been influenced greatly by her. Annabel Abbs now opens up her life in this very interesting book. Here is the link to discover more: The Language of Food

Create Your Own Indoor Green by Joe Swift who is also an expert gardener on Gardeners World and various other programmes. The book is an easy step by step guide to indoor plants. It quite literally has everything you need to know, whether you’re getting started or already have indoor plants as there’s always more knowledge to be gained. There are handy hints and tips as well as growing and caring for them. I actually bought this for a friend after reviewing it and she is delighted. Find out the blurb and review in the link: Joe’s Create Your Own Indoor Green

Women Like Us By Amanda Prowse, is a memoir where she sheds light and insight into her life, which many women will be able to relate to or understand, perhaps more than they may first expect. It’s a highly interesting read.
Women Like Us

One Night on The Island introduces readers to Cleo. She works for the magazine – Women Today and has an unusual assignment to do. Directed by her boss, Ali, the assignment is to marry herself (or self-coupling or sologamy) on a remote island. She has a few reservations to say the least. It’s an entertaining story with lots of heart and warmth. One Night On the Island

Mothers and Daughters By Erica James is a compelling story of family life and revelations. Families can be more complex than what they may first appear to be in this sweeping family drama. Mothers and Daughters

Marion Crawford, a bright, ambitious young teacher, is ready to make her mark on the world. Until a twist of fate changes the course of her life forever…
This mixes fact and fiction with Marion and the UK Royal Family in a fascinating way, about a woman not everyone knows much about. The Good Servant

Wolf Pack By Will Dean is a Scandi-Noir.

Tuva Moodyson has a case on her hands to solve with Thord and Chief Björn.
Elsa Nyberg is reported as being missing and chillingly, Rose Farm has quite the history of deadly things happening there, involving a family. It’s a gripping page-turner. Here is the link to the full review and blurb. Wolf Pack

The Empire By Michael Ball is exquisitely theatrical, after all, that is his background. It takes readers back in time to the glitz and glamour of 1922, where you’ll meet Jack Tredwell and a whole host of other cast. There are secrets and the future of the theatre itself is in jeopardy. It’s a page turner! Here’s my link to the blurb and rest of the review The Empire

After Steve – How Apple Became A Trillion-Dollar Company And Lost Its Soul By Tripp Mickle @trippmickle @HarperCollinsUK #Apple #Biography #NonFiction

After Steve

How Apple Became A Trillion-Dollar Company and Lost It’s Soul

By Tripp Mickle

I have a review about a book that may well interest people who are into their Apple Products or interested in technology or growth of companies and how they change from humble beginnings as well as what happens… I also think it’ll interest UK readers, certainly, who watch series on tv like “How do they (company name) do that and Inside (company name).

Below I have the blurb and my review and a bit about the author. I also thank Harper Collins UK, Non-Fiction for allowing me to review.

Blurb

From the Wall Street Journal’s Tripp Mickle, the dramatic, untold story inside Apple after the passing of Steve Jobs by following his top lieutenants—Jony Ive, the Chief Design Officer, and Tim Cook, the COO-turned-CEO—and how the fading of the former and the rise of the latter led to Apple losing its soul.

Steve Jobs called Jony Ive his “spiritual partner at Apple.” The London-born genius was the second-most powerful person at Apple and the creative force who most embodies Jobs’s spirit, the man who designed the products adopted by hundreds of millions the world over: the iPod, iPad, MacBook Air, the iMac G3, and the iPhone. In the wake of his close collaborator’s death, the chief designer wrestled with grief and initially threw himself into his work designing the new Apple headquarters and the Watch before losing his motivation in a company increasingly devoted more to margins than to inspiration.

In many ways, Cook was Ive’s opposite. The product of a small Alabama town, he had risen through the ranks from the supply side of the company. His gift was not the creation of new products. Instead, he had invented countless ways to maximize a margin, squeezing some suppliers, persuading others to build factories the size of cities to churn out more units. He considered inventory evil. He knew how to make subordinates sweat with withering questions.

Jobs selected Cook as his successor, and Cook oversaw a period of tremendous revenue growth that has lifted Apple’s valuation to $3 trillion. He built a commanding business in China and rapidly distinguished himself as a master politician who could forge global alliances and send the world’s stock market into freefall with a single sentence.

Author Tripp Mickle spoke with more than 200 current and former Apple executives, as well as figures key to this period of Apple’s history, including Trump administration officials and fashion luminaries such as Anna Wintour while writing After Steve. His research shows the company’s success came at a cost. Apple lost its innovative spirit and has not designed a new category of device in years. Ive’s departure in 2019 marked a culmination in Apple’s shift from a company of innovation to one of operational excellence, and the price is a company that has lost its soul.

Review

Apple is a company that’s a huge deal in the tech world. Most people own or have owned an Apple product of some description or been an onlooker. It’s a hard company to ignore with its technological advancements and widespread advertising. Even today, with my laptop needing a bit of fixing, I’ve turned to an Apple I-pad, my only Apple product, but a significant one, to use to write this review. As we all know though, there are multiple generations of the Mac, I-phones, I-pads, with major stores in cities, plus online. It’s a global trillion dollar company, and here, the author lifts the lid on it with a number of revelations.

Steve Jobs seemed creative with a vast get up and go attitude and vision, coupled together with that important know how as well (inspiration and vision is after all only part of what you need for anything), that is also hard to ignore.

There are recollections of meetings with Steve Jobs, referred often to Jony in the book, by staff. Steve Jobs, it seems, was well aware of his own mortality and it’s interesting how he looks at other companies such as Disney and Sony and what initially happened to them after the death of their original creators, as well as attempts to solidify his team for its future CEO.

I remember when it was announced in the UK about Steve Job’s death and everyone was shocked, from the tech geeks to the dabblers. The book gives a momentary glimpse into just how big a figure he was.

It’s fascinating being able to read about the staff, not all of it is in a business sense and you get a bit of a feel for their personalities, as well as seeing the ups and downs, some of the conversations had. It shows passion and encouragement as well as tempers and attitudes come to the fore at times. The direction of Apple itself is also interesting, with all the huge personalities and ideas, before and after Steve Jobs died in 2011. It shows the difference between Jobs time and post Jobs and the controversies and politics that followed.

The book’s sub-title is “How Apple Became A Trillion Dollar Company and Lost it’s Soul”. Within the book, you can see how this happened and why that is so apt. It also quickly becomes clear, the amount of substantial research that was done.

Interestingly the book a little goes into 2016 when a shocking incident happened with a gun wielding person getting into a meeting room. It certainly captures attention again, or at least in a way when in a country where that is not any type of norm. It then takes the company to 2019 when business-wise it gets interesting.

The book shows how powerful Steve Jobs was and those who surrounded him became. It shows how technology moved on in droves and the cracks that appeared and a glimpse into how amongst all the glitz and glam of new product launches, it’s still a company that, whilst still powerful, is still having issues to present day, especially 2021. It’s fascinating to read the impact staff taking over in top jobs have after the original founder leaves or in this case dies. Sounds like Apple and probably many others are lucky to still be around, but have increased turbulent times to navigate. The insight the book gives can be profound at times, as well as generally interesting.

It is a book that was better than I thought and piqued my interest in a way I had not expected it to. I was glad to take a punt on this book, even though it’s far from what I’d normally read, but Steve Jobs and Apple and the subsequent CEOs are, as I eluded to, are all around us and hard to ignore, as they all seep even further into the public consciousness, many use their products everyday or most days in some form or another. It feels an honest account of where Apple is and where it’s been heading. It’s surprisingly not all business-like, sometimes it has a raw emotion and other times, reflective. This certainly adds to the readability and accessibility, even if it piques your interest just a little.

About the Author

Tripp Mickle is a technology reporter for The New York Times covering Apple. He previously covered the company for the Wall Street Journal, where he also wrote about Google and other Silicon Valley giants. He has appeared on CNBC and NPR, and previously worked as a sportswriter. He lives with his wife and German shorthaired pointer in San Francisco.

#Review of Tales From The Hamlet By Cassandra Campbell-Kemp #LoveBooksTours #Memoir #MemoriesOfItaly

Tales From The Hamlet
Memories Of Italy

By Cassandra Campbell-Kemp

Thanks to Love Books Tours for inviting me to review an insightful non-fiction book set in Italy.

At the age of 61, Cassandra, a single and peripatetic Brit, was asked to pack up her house and move to Italy to take up the offer of a much-needed job. 15 months later she was made redundant, leaving her unnerved, broke and unable to return home. Her dream of a new life was rapidly turning into a nightmare and, saddled with all her belongings, her antique furniture, over 800 books and her aged Siamese cat she had nowhere to go.

A kind friend offered them sanctuary in a tiny converted former barn in his family’s ‘Borgo’, a cluster of rustic properties grouped around a late-Medieval manor House in the mountains; the beautiful and mysterious Emilian Appenines of northern Italy. There she was befriended and watched over by the owner; an eccentric octogenarian, his household ghosts and 14 semi feral cats.

Review

It’s a very descriptive book that takes time to read, but worth investing in as there is some beautiful writing in there. There is also some lovely descriptions of architecture to draw the reader into Northern Italy.

The eccentric octogenarian adds some interest and appeal as she became befriended by an owner of the properties Cassandra was at. It brought a bit of heart to the adventures of this part of her life.

There’s essentially a story of fighting against adversity being told as she wants to come home, but discovers she cannot, so has to find ways of making more money and hoping she is lucky enough to do this so she can return to the UK. I found myself wondering what the future would hold for Cassandra as it seemed like some bleak circumstances had been hit and wanted to know if it got better.

It was a pleasant read, if not at times, perhaps overly descriptive, but there are fascinating insights into how not all is lovely and perfect when you move, even with all the lovely food and landscape she encountered. It’s like a big dose of reality hits. There are also some historical insights that are interesting in the region of Italy Cassandra was in.

About The Author

Cassandra is a somewhat eccentric, unconventional and fiercely independent woman of pensionable age. Formerly an international real estate executive she travelled widely, living and working in various European countries – including Italy, Greece and Spain. During her time in Europe she fell in love with the countries, their cultures, the people and the food! She learnt several languages and spent all her spare time exploring.

Now happily retired, she lives alone with her rescue cat, Felix, in a quintessential 17th century English cottage where she writes about her 30 years of adventures. Her first book, ‘Cauliflowers through the Catflap and other tales from a solitary lockdown’ is a humorous and very tongue-in-cheek look at her experiences of shielding alone through the Covid pandemic. Her second book, ‘Tales from the Hamlet’, is a heartwarming tale of what happened when, living in Italy, she was unexpectedly made redundant and saddled with all her antique furniture, over 800 books and an elderly Siamese cat, she had no money to return home and nowhere to go.